July 2014

“The Last of the Big Dogs” has a new home after Pantex workers recently delivered one of the few remaining B53 nuclear weapons cases to the Freedom Museum USA in Pampa, Texas.

The final B53, which received its “Big Dog” nickname from dismantlement workers due to its massive size, was dismantled at Pantex on October 25, 2011, in a historic ceremony. The B53 was the oldest, largest and most destructive nuclear weapon in the U.S. arsenal at the time it was retired.

Pantex was looking for a way to preserve the legacy of the B53 and recognize the workers who built, maintained and dismantled it. The Freedom Museum, located about 45 minutes from Pantex, volunteered to take the dismantled weapon on loan to add to its large collection of historical military artifacts.

Monica Graham, Pantex historian, said the move was an important effort to publicly display this iconic weapon that served in secret for decades, helping to ensure the safety of America.

The B53 was first put into service in 1962, a year when Cold War tensions were at their highest during the Cuban Missile Crisis. It served a critical role in the nation’s nuclear deterrent through the end of the Cold War, retiring from the active stockpile in 1997.

The B53 weighed around 10,000 pounds and was about the size of a minivan. Many B53s were dismantled in the 1980s, but a significant number remained in the U.S. arsenal until they were retired in 1997.

The B53 which was delivered this week consisted only of the outer casing of the weapon and is empty on the inside. It is one of only three such museum artifacts in the country built from a stockpile weapon. The others were assembled from training units or spare parts.

The NNSA holds a unique and important place in global nuclear science and technology. Through our laboratories and plants, our scientists conduct specialized research that is recognized internationally as among the best in the world. We should not take this for granted.

America’s National Security Strategy stresses that, “science and technology—and our ability to apply the ingenuity of our public and private sectors toward the most difficult foreign policy and security challenges of our time—will help us protect our citizens and advance U.S. national security priorities.”

That scientific ingenuity is embodied by NNSA’s workforce. Accomplishing our missions of maintaining a safe, secure and effective stockpile and being a world leader in preventing and countering nuclear proliferation and terrorism can only be accomplished with a superb technical base. This base must include resources for basic science to drive technical solutions to security challenges—both today and for decades to come.

That is why it is vitally important for us to assign the highest priority to maintaining the core scientific, technical and engineering (ST&E) capabilities of the Nation’s nuclear security enterprise. Our investment in the ST&E personnel and facilities that make this possible, as well as our commitment to attract and retain the best and brightest talent, must remain consistent and steadfast.

We will continue to emphasize the importance of science because, quite simply, our missions depend on it.

William Pitz, LLNL (bottom right)Pitz’s research focuses on the development of chemical kinetic mechanisms and their application to problems such as combustion in homogeneous charge compression ignition engines and diesel engines.

NNSA's Office of Acquisition and Project Management (APM), the community manager for acquisition professionals, hosted NNSA Contracting Officers in Albuquerque this week to align NNSA acquisition policies and procedures with Departmental goals and priorities, and to clarify roles and responsibilities among the various COs across the Nuclear Security Enterprise.

A key discussion topic was how NNSA was implementing the Deputy Secretary's policy for improving acquisition planning and contract management for capital asset projects. The primary principle behind this policy is that the Department must align contract incentives and vehicles with taxpayer interests. Each party must share the risk by bearing responsibility for its own actions. The policy includes guidance to ensure proper project planning so that requirements are clearly defined before issuing a solicitation; to first consider the use of a firm-fixed-price contract to complete work requirements; to establish objective performance measures when a fixed-price contract is not in the government’s best interest; to utilize fee strategies that assure each party in the contract bears responsibility for its own actions; and to document and stay apprised of real-time, accurate, and reliable project performance data.

With this new organizational construct in place, NNSA has delivered its $725M project portfolio $50M - or 7% - under budget during the past the three years. In 2013, NNSA was removed from the GAO High Risk list for construction projects, with a Total Project Cost up to $750 million as a result of the improvements it is making in NNSA contract and project management.

Preparing the country to respond to a large scale nuclear event is the primary function of the NNSA Office of Emergency Response. This week, Consequence Management teams from that office participated in the Vibrant Response 14 exercise at Camp Atterbury in Muscatatuck, Ind. and surrounding areas.

Taking advantage of a U. S. Army North exercise, NNSA, alongside FEMA, Indiana Department of Homeland Security, and numerous other local, state, and federal agencies with civilian personnel from across the country responded to a simulated terrorist attack with a nuclear weapon. NNSA deployed personnel to federal and state operating facilities to coordinate the response to the radiological aspects of this scenario. Additionally, a Consequence Management Home Team provided support from Las Vegas, NV, Livermore, CA. and Albuquerque, NM. This team provided models of fallout deposition and analysis of environmental monitoring data.

This was the most extensive exercise of this type to date, involving not only 5000+ field deployed Department of defense Military personnel in the field but also a multitude of support and coordination facilities across the country. Lessons learned during this exercise will be used to improve NNSA and other national organizations response to nuclear and radiological incidents of all scales and inform national level policies guiding that response.

Preparing students for the technological skill sets that will be required in tomorrow’s STEM related jobs in industry is an ongoing priority for the National Security Campus (NSC) in Kansas City, Mo. Last week, the NSC hosted a Model-Based Engineering Workshop for 32 college professors and students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to gain first-hand knowledge of the exciting opportunities and challenges engineering professionals tackle each day.

In 2012, the NNSA established a $4 million grant which launched the Minority Serving Institution Partnership Program (MSIPP). This consortium based program formed two advanced manufacturing consortiums which included 8 universities and two NNSA sites (NSC and Y-12).

This year’s students and professors were from Hampton University, Clark Atlanta University, Alabama A&M, University of District of Columbia, North Carolina A&T, Southern University New Orleans, Lincoln University, and Howard University. The Model-Based Engineering workshop helps educators incorporate 3D modeling and advanced manufacturing into their curriculum through hands-on model-based application training and an exercise for a mock rocket assembly.

Through this public and private partnership, the HBCU teachers can better shape their curriculum and advise students on what skills employers expect from engineers and scientists and the NNSA learns about the technical strengths of the participating universities, which will help future recruiting and R&D initiatives.

Fourteen hazardous materials response teams from New Mexico, Missouri, Nebraska and Oklahoma will test their skills at the 18th annual Hazmat Challenge July 29 through Aug. 1 at Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The intent of the challenge is to provide hazardous materials responders the opportunity to test their skills, share best practices with other response agencies, and learn new techniques through realistic hazardous materials release scenarios in a safe, non-hazardous environment.

A video about the 2008 and 2012 Hazmat challenges is on the Laboratory’s Web site and on LANL's YouTube channel.

Officials from NNSA’s Uranium Processing Facility Project Office and Consolidated Nuclear Security recently signed an agreement to create a team dedicated to accomplishing the Uranium Processing Facility mission: a new UPF with Building 9212 capabilities by 2025 for under $6.5 billion.

The agreement also emphasizes a collaborative approach to problem solving and issue resolution focused on early identification and rapid communication. It was signed by 25 leaders of the project from both UPO and CNS, including UPF Federal Project Director John Eschenberg and CNS Project Director Brian Reilly.

Partnering is an industry best practice that has been used by DOE’s Environmental Management Program, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and large commercial construction projects. UPO’s partnering agreement with CNS represents the first such agreement for NNSA and serves as yet another example of the way in which NNSA is applying industry best practices to improve project management.

The Y-12 National Security Complex recently was recognized by NNSA for achieving the highest savings rate in the NNSA enterprise for fiscal year 2013.

At the recent Supply Chain Management Center (SCMC) biannual operational meeting, NNSA presented Y‑12 Procurement Operations with the award for attaining the Highest Total Strategic Savings Rate among NNSA’s seven management and operating contractors. Y‑12 achieved a total 6.51 percent savings rate of total strategic spending, as measured by the SCMC.

In FY 2014, the SCMC also accepted Y‑12’s recommendation for a regional sourcing approach. This new localized approach will award regional supplier contracts to improve lead time, reduce freight cost, and increase use of local small businesses. Sites within the same region will be served by the contracted supplier in the area instead of a national, single-source supplier.